Branding, web and marketing glossary

The terms you’ll hear when building your brand, your website or your campaigns, explained in plain language.

Brand

Bleed: Extra design area that extends past the trim edge of a printed piece. It prevents thin white edges if the cut is not perfectly precise; the print shop tells you the size it needs.
Brand architecture: The way a company organizes its brands, products and services and how they relate to each other: whether everything carries the same name, each line has its own identity, or both approaches are combined. It avoids confusion as the business grows.
Brand guidelines: A document explaining how to use the visual identity: logo versions, minimum sizes, clear space, colors, typefaces and examples of correct and incorrect use. It helps anyone apply the brand consistently.
Brand positioning: The place a brand aims to hold in its audience’s mind compared with competitors: what it offers, for whom and why it is different. It guides design, messaging and channel decisions.
Branding: The process of defining and building how a brand is perceived: its purpose, personality, voice and visual identity. It goes beyond the logo and covers every point of contact with the customer.
Brief: A short document summarizing a project’s goal, audience, key messages, references, timeline and constraints. It is the starting point that keeps the creative team and the client aligned.
Business stationery: Everyday printed or digital items that carry the brand identity: business cards, letterhead, envelopes, folders, email signatures and document templates.
Clear space: The minimum space that must stay empty around the logo, free of text and other elements. It protects legibility and is defined in the brand guidelines, usually based on a measurement taken from the logo itself.
CMYK: The color model used in printing, based on four inks: cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Files sent to a print shop should be prepared in CMYK so printed colors come close to what you expect.
Color palette: A brand’s defined set of colors, with codes for screen (RGB, HEX) and print (CMYK, Pantone). It usually includes primary, secondary and neutral colors, plus rules on how to combine them.
Combination mark (imagotype): A logo made of a symbol and text that appear together but remain separate, so each part can be used on its own when space or context requires it.
Emblem (isologo): A logo in which text and symbol are fused into a single piece and cannot be separated without losing meaning, like a crest or a seal with the name inside.
Logotype (wordmark): A logo made only of text: the brand name set in its own typeface and treatment. In everyday use, the word “logo” is used for any variant.
Mockup: A realistic preview of how a design will look once applied, for example a logo on a business card, packaging or storefront, or a website on a phone. It helps evaluate and present a proposal before producing it.
Moodboard: A board of visual references, such as photos, colors, typefaces and textures, that shows a project’s aesthetic direction. It is used to agree on the style with the client before design work begins.
Naming: The process of creating a name for a brand, product or service. It considers meaning, pronunciation in the market’s languages, domain and social media availability, and whether it can be legally registered.
Pantone: A system of standardized colors identified by a code, used in printing to reproduce a shade consistently across different vendors and materials. It is common for logos, packaging and stationery.
Rebranding: Renewing an existing brand, which can range from updating the logo and palette to redefining the name, positioning and messaging. It usually responds to changes in the business, audience or market.
Resolution (DPI/PPI): The number of dots or pixels per inch in an image. It determines whether the image will look sharp when printed at a given size: an image that looks fine on screen may come out pixelated on paper.
RGB: The color model used by screens, combining red, green and blue light. It is the right format for websites, social media and video; for printing, convert to CMYK.
Symbol (isotype): The symbolic part of a brand, without text: an icon, figure or shape that identifies the brand on its own. It is useful in small spaces, such as an app icon or a social media avatar.
Tagline: A short phrase that accompanies the brand and sums up its offer or personality. It can be permanent, alongside the logo, or change with each campaign.
Target audience: The group of people or companies a brand addresses, defined by traits such as needs, habits, location or industry. Knowing it guides design, tone of messaging and choice of channels.
Tone of voice: The way a brand expresses itself in writing and speech: more formal or more approachable, technical or simple, serious or playful. Defining it helps the website, social media and emails sound like the same brand.
Trademark registration: The legal process that grants the exclusive right to use a name or logo in certain categories and countries. It is handled through each country’s trademark office, and it is worth checking availability before settling on a name.
Typography: The design and use of letterforms. In a brand, it refers to the typefaces chosen for headings and body text, which add personality and readability. Check their license before using them.
Value proposition: A short explanation of what a company offers, to whom, and why to choose it over other options. It underpins the messaging on the website, in presentations and in ads.
Vector: A graphic defined by mathematical shapes instead of pixels, so it can be scaled to any size without losing quality. Logos should be delivered in vector formats such as SVG, AI, EPS or PDF.
Visual identity: The set of graphic elements that represent a brand: logo, colors, typefaces, icons, photography and layout style. Applied consistently, it makes the brand recognizable on any medium.
Visual system: The set of rules and resources that makes it possible to create new pieces without losing consistency: grids, proportions, color usage, image styles and icons. It goes beyond the logo and lets the brand work in any format.

Print and packaging

Barcode (EAN/UPC): A numeric code shown as bars that identifies a product at checkout and in inventory systems. On packaging it needs a minimum size, good contrast and a clear zone around it so scanners can read it.
Color proof: A printed or certified digital sample that shows how colors will look before the full run is produced. It is used to sign off the result with the print shop and avoid surprises, especially with brand colors.
Crop marks: Thin lines placed outside the design area that show the print shop where to trim the piece. They are added when exporting the final file, together with the bleed.
Die cut (dieline): A tool with blades that cuts, creases or perforates the material into a shape other than a plain rectangle, such as a box, a contoured label or a folder with flaps. Its flat template, the dieline, is used as a guide when designing.
Digital printing: A method that prints straight from the file, with no plates. It suits short runs, tight deadlines or pieces with variable data, such as a different name or code on each copy.
Final artwork (print-ready file): The definitive file of a design, prepared to the print shop’s specifications: exact dimensions, bleed, correct colors, images at adequate resolution and fonts embedded or converted to outlines. It is what gets sent to production.
Offset printing: A printing method that transfers ink to paper using plates. It requires initial setup, so it is usually chosen for medium and large runs, where it delivers consistent color and fine detail.
Paper weight (gsm): The weight of paper or board, expressed in grams per square meter (gsm). It affects stiffness, opacity and how the piece feels: a business card uses a much heavier stock than a letter sheet.
Primary and secondary packaging: Primary packaging is in direct contact with the product, such as a bottle or a pouch. Secondary packaging groups or protects it, such as a box or a sleeve. Each has different requirements for materials, information and design.
Print finishes: Treatments applied to a piece after printing, such as matte or gloss lamination, spot varnish, embossing or foil stamping. They change the look, feel and durability of the material.
Spot color: A color printed with a single premixed ink instead of being built from the four CMYK inks. It is used to reproduce a brand color accurately or for special inks, such as metallic or fluorescent ones.

Web

301 redirect: An instruction that permanently sends visitors and search engines from an old address to a new one. It is key when redesigning a site or changing domains so you don’t lose rankings or links.
404 error: The response a site gives when the requested address does not exist, because the page was removed, its URL changed or the link is mistyped. A clear 404 page helps visitors keep browsing; addresses that changed are best redirected.
Accessibility (WCAG): The practice of designing and building websites that everyone can use, including people with disabilities. WCAG are the international reference guidelines: sufficient contrast, alternative text, keyboard navigation and properly labeled forms, among others.
Alt text: A short description of an image added in the page’s code. It is read aloud by the screen readers used by people who are blind or have low vision, and it also helps search engines understand the image.
Backup: A copy of a website’s files and database, stored somewhere other than the main server. It lets you restore the site after mistakes, attacks or failures. It is good practice to check regularly that restoring actually works.
Breadcrumbs: A row of links showing where the visitor is on the site and the path back to the home page, for example Home, Services, Branding. They make it easy to go up a level and help search engines understand the structure.
Cache: A temporary copy of pages or files stored so they can be delivered faster on the next visit, without generating them again. If a change doesn’t show up on the site, clearing the cache is sometimes all it takes.
CDN: A network of servers spread across different regions that stores copies of a website’s content and delivers it from the location closest to each visitor. It improves speed and helps handle traffic spikes.
CMS: Content management system: a platform for creating and editing pages, posts, images and products from a dashboard, without touching the code. There are many options, and the right one depends on the project’s needs.
Cookie consent: A notice that tells visitors which cookies and measurement tools the site uses and lets them accept or decline them. In many countries it is a legal requirement, and analytics and advertising tools must respect that choice.
Core Web Vitals: A set of Google metrics that measure the real experience of loading and using a page: how long it takes to show the main content, how quickly it responds to interactions and how much the layout shifts while loading. They are among the signals Google takes into account.
DNS: The system that translates a domain name into the address of the server where the website is hosted. DNS records specify, for example, where the website points and which service receives the domain’s email.
Domain: The unique name that identifies a website on the internet, such as yourbrand.com. It is registered for renewable periods; it should be in the company’s name, with up-to-date contact details, so you don’t lose it.
Favicon: The small icon that identifies a site in the browser tab, bookmarks and search results. It is usually a simplified version of the logo, legible at very small sizes.
Form: A set of fields that lets a visitor submit information, such as an inquiry, a booking or a subscription. A good form asks only for what is necessary, explains errors clearly, confirms submission and protects against spam.
Hosting: A service that stores a website’s files and database on an internet-connected server so the site is available. Its quality affects the site’s speed, security and stability.
Hreflang: A tag that tells search engines which version of a page corresponds to each language or country. On a multilingual website, it helps each person see the right version in search results.
Indexing: The process by which a search engine analyzes a page and stores it in its index so it can be shown in results. A page that is not indexed does not appear in searches, even if it is published.
Information architecture: How a website’s content is organized: which sections it has, how pages are grouped and how you get from one to another. A good structure lets visitors find what they are looking for in a few steps.
Landing page: A page designed for one specific goal, such as requesting a quote or downloading a resource, usually reached from an ad, an email or a post. It focuses the message and reduces distractions.
Meta description: A short text that summarizes a page’s content and that search engines may show below the title in results. It does not directly affect ranking, but it does influence whether someone decides to click.
Responsive design: Web design that automatically adapts to the screen size, from phone to desktop monitor, rearranging content so it is comfortable to read and use on every device.
Sitemap: A file, usually in XML format, that lists a website’s pages to help search engines find and crawl them. It is usually submitted to tools such as Google Search Console.
SSL certificate: A digital certificate that enables an encrypted connection (HTTPS) between the browser and the website, shown by the padlock in the address bar. It protects submitted data, such as form entries, and browsers warn visitors when it is missing. The current technology is called TLS, though people still say SSL.
Staging environment: A private copy of a website where changes, updates or new features are tested before going live. It lets you catch errors without affecting visitors to the live site.
Structured data: Code that describes a page’s content in a format search engines understand, for example that it is a business, a product, a review or a frequently asked question. It can make a page eligible for rich results on Google.
Technical SEO: The part of SEO that makes sure search engines can crawl, understand and index a website: speed, link structure, sitemap, redirects, structured data, tags and the mobile version, among other aspects.
UI: User interface: the visible part a person interacts with on a website or app, such as buttons, menus, forms, colors and typography. Good UI design is clear, consistent and easy to recognize.
UX: User experience: how a person feels when using a website or app, whether they find what they are looking for and can do what they want without effort. It is shaped through research, content architecture, prototypes and user testing.
Wireframe: A simple outline of a page, without final colors or images, showing what content it will have and how it is arranged. It lets everyone agree on the structure before moving on to visual design and a clickable prototype.

Online store

Abandoned cart: A purchase a visitor started by adding products to the cart but did not complete. Measuring how many carts are abandoned, and at which step, helps spot problems such as unclear shipping costs or an overly long form.
Average order value (AOV): The average amount of each purchase over a period: total sales divided by the number of orders. It helps evaluate tactics such as bundles, free shipping above a threshold or suggested products.
B2B portal: A private store or site for selling to other businesses, such as distributors or retailers. It usually includes account login, customer-specific terms, bulk ordering and reordering of previous purchases.
Checkout: The final stage of an online purchase, where the customer enters their details, chooses shipping and pays. The fewer steps and doubts it involves, the easier it is to complete the order.
E-commerce: Selling products or services over the internet. It can happen through your own store, a marketplace, social media or a mix of channels, and it also covers payments, shipping, inventory and customer service.
Inventory sync: Automatic updating of available quantities across the online store, the physical shop and other sales channels. It reduces the risk of selling a product that is no longer available.
Marketplace: A platform where many sellers list their products, such as Amazon or Mercado Libre. It brings existing traffic and trust, in exchange for commissions and less control over the brand and customer data.
Payment gateway: A service that processes an online store’s payments: it takes the card or chosen payment method details, validates them with the bank and confirms the transaction. The store does not need to keep the customer’s sensitive data.
Product page: The page that presents a product in an online store: photos, description, price, variants, availability and shipping terms. It is where the customer decides, so it should answer the most common questions.
Product variant: A version of the same product that differs in one attribute, such as size, color or volume. Each variant can have its own price, stock, photo and code.
SKU: An internal code that identifies each product or variant in inventory, for example a T-shirt in a specific size and color. It keeps stock organized and avoids mix-ups between the store, the warehouse and invoicing.

Systems and support

API: An interface that lets two systems exchange data automatically, for example an online store with an invoicing or shipping system. It is the basis of most integrations.
Business email: Email accounts on the company’s own domain, such as name@yourbrand.com. They look more professional than a free account and let the company manage access when the team changes.
CRM: A system for recording and following up on contacts, customers and sales opportunities: who inquired, what was offered and what the next step is. It keeps information from being scattered across emails, spreadsheets and chats.
Custom software: An application built for a company’s specific processes, when off-the-shelf tools do not cover them or force workarounds. It is worth agreeing from the start on who owns the code and how it will be maintained.
ERP: A management system that brings together areas such as sales, purchasing, inventory, invoicing and accounting in one place. Because everyone works from the same data, it reduces manual entry and discrepancies between departments.
Integration: A connection between two or more systems so they share information without manual entry, for example so each store sale generates its invoice and updates stock. It requires deciding which data takes precedence when there is a mismatch.
Migration: Moving a website, a store or a system to another platform or server. It is planned so that content, data, URLs and search rankings are preserved and downtime is kept to a minimum.
Phishing: A scam by email, message or fake website that imitates a company or a known person to obtain passwords, payment details or access. When in doubt, it is best not to open links and to verify through another channel.
SPF, DKIM and DMARC: Records set on the domain that state which services may send email on its behalf and how to treat messages that fail the check. They help legitimate emails reach the inbox and make spoofing harder.
Two-factor authentication (2FA): A sign-in method that asks for a second piece of information besides the password, such as a temporary code from an app or a phone. It makes it harder for someone to get into an account even if they have obtained the password.
Uptime: The percentage of time a website or service is available. It is tracked with monitoring tools that send an alert when the site stops responding, so the issue can be addressed quickly.
Website maintenance: Recurring tasks that keep a site secure and running: updates, backups, monitoring, form checks and bug fixes. A site without maintenance accumulates risk over time.

Marketing

A/B test: An experiment that compares two versions of a page, ad or email, showing each to part of the audience, to see which performs better. Change only one element at a time and wait for enough data before deciding.
Audience segmentation: Dividing the audience into groups with shared traits, such as location, interests, buying stage or history. It makes it possible to tailor messages, ads and emails to each group instead of saying the same thing to everyone.
Backlink: A link from another website to yours. Search engines treat it as a signal of trust, especially when it comes from relevant, quality sites; where it comes from matters more than how many there are.
Bounce rate: The percentage of visits that leave without interacting with the page. In Google Analytics 4 it corresponds to non-engaged sessions: those lasting under ten seconds, with no conversions and a single page view.
CAC: Customer acquisition cost: what was spent on marketing and sales over a period divided by the number of new customers gained. It makes it possible to compare channels and assess whether a campaign is sustainable.
Call to action (CTA): A text or button that invites the next step, such as “Request a quote” or “Message us on WhatsApp”. It should be specific, with one main call per page or piece.
Conversion: A valuable action a visitor takes that the business defines as a goal: a purchase, a submitted form, a call or a booking. The conversion rate shows what share of visits ends in that action.
Conversion funnel: A model describing the stages a person goes through from discovering a brand to buying or getting in touch: awareness, consideration and decision. It helps spot the step where most prospects drop off and what message each stage needs.
Conversion rate: The percentage of visitors who complete the intended action, such as buying or submitting a form, out of total visits. It is calculated by dividing conversions by visits and makes it possible to compare pages, campaigns or periods.
CPC: Cost per click: the average amount paid each time someone clicks an ad. It depends on competition, ad quality and targeting, and is one of the basic metrics of paid campaigns.
CPM: Cost per thousand impressions: the amount paid for every thousand times an ad is shown. It is common in campaigns whose goal is for the brand to be seen and remembered.
CTR: Click-through rate: the percentage of people who clicked an ad, search result or link out of everyone who saw it. It helps measure how appealing and relevant a message is.
Custom audience: An advertising audience built from your own data, such as website visitors, people who interacted with a profile or a customer list. It is used to show ads to people who already know the brand or to find similar profiles.
Email marketing: Sending emails to a list of contacts who agreed to receive them: news, content, promotions or automated messages such as a welcome email. It requires consent and a simple way to unsubscribe.
Engagement: How much an audience interacts with content or a brand: reactions, comments, saves, shares, clicks or replies. Each platform calculates it differently, so it is best compared within the same network.
Google Analytics 4: Google’s analytics tool for measuring visitor behavior on a website or app: where visitors come from, which pages they view and what actions they take. It is based on events and lets you mark the most important ones as key events.
Google Business Profile: A free listing that shows a business on Google Search and Maps, with address, hours, phone number, photos and reviews. It is especially important for local businesses and should be kept up to date.
Google Search Console: A Google tool that shows how a website appears in search: which queries lead to it, how many clicks and impressions it gets and what indexing issues it detects. It is also used to submit the sitemap and request that a page be recrawled.
Keyword: A term or phrase someone types into a search engine. Researching which keywords the audience uses makes it possible to create pages and ads that answer those searches in the same language.
KPI: Key performance indicator: a metric chosen to measure progress toward a specific goal, such as inquiries received, sales or cost per result. A few well-chosen KPIs are more useful than lots of scattered data.
Lead: A person or business that showed interest and left their contact details, for example by filling out a form or sending a message. They are not a customer yet, but they are an opportunity worth following up quickly.
Local SEO: Work aimed at appearing in searches with geographic intent, such as “near me” or a city name, and on Google Maps. It includes maintaining the Google Business Profile, consistent contact details and reviews.
Lookalike audience: An advertising audience the platform builds from people with traits similar to those in a source list, such as current customers. It is used to reach new people with a comparable profile.
Pixel (tracking pixel): A snippet of code from an advertising platform, such as Meta, installed on a website to record visits and actions. It makes it possible to measure campaign conversions and build audiences; its use should be disclosed in the privacy policy and respect visitors’ consent.
Reach: The number of unique people who saw a post or ad at least once. It differs from impressions, which count every time the content was shown, even to the same person.
Remarketing: A strategy that shows ads to people who already visited a website or interacted with a brand, reminding them of what they saw and inviting them back. It is also called retargeting.
ROAS: Return on ad spend: the ratio between the revenue attributed to a campaign and what was spent on it. It is useful for comparing campaigns, although it does not account for other business costs, such as products or shipping.
SEM: Search engine marketing. It usually refers to paid ads that appear in search results, such as Google Ads, where you pay per click based on the chosen keywords. In a broader sense, it also includes SEO.
SEO: Search engine optimization: the practices that help a website appear in the organic, meaning unpaid, results of search engines such as Google. It combines useful content, a solid technical foundation, speed and quality links, and its results build up over the medium term.
UTM: Parameters added to the end of a link to identify where a visit comes from, for example the social network, campaign or ad. Tools such as Google Analytics 4 read them to attribute traffic correctly.

Social & content

Captions (subtitles): Text that accompanies a video’s audio. They let people follow it with the sound off, as often happens on social media, and make it accessible to people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Carousel: A post made up of several images or videos that are swiped through one after another. It is used to explain a topic step by step, show a product from different angles or tell a case story.
Community management: The day-to-day management of a brand’s social media: publishing, replying to comments and messages, moderating and spotting questions or complaints. It is the brand’s voice in the conversation with its audience.
Content calendar: A plan of what gets published, on which channel and on what date. It helps keep a steady rhythm, balance topics and prepare pieces ahead of key dates for the business.
Hashtag: A word or phrase preceded by the # sign that groups posts on the same topic and makes them easier to find. It is best to use a few that are relevant to the content and the audience.
Motion graphics: Animation of text, shapes, icons and illustrations to explain an idea or present a brand on video. It needs no filming and carries the visual identity into motion.
Organic content: Posts shown without paying for advertising. Their reach depends on the interest they generate and on how each platform decides to distribute them, and they are often combined with paid ads.
Reel: A short vertical video on Instagram and Facebook that can be shown to people who do not yet follow the account. TikTok and YouTube Shorts offer equivalent formats.
Script: The text that sets out what is seen and heard in a video: scenes, voice-over, on-screen text and timing. It lets everyone agree on the content before filming or animating, while changes are still simple.
Story: A vertical post that disappears after 24 hours unless it is saved as a highlight on the profile. It is used for day-to-day content, news, polls and links.
Vertical format (9:16): An image or video ratio designed for full-screen viewing on a phone, used in stories, reels and short videos. It is best to leave clear margins at the top and bottom, where apps display buttons and text.

Frequently asked questions

Who is this glossary for?

For owners and teams at small and mid-sized businesses who work with designers, developers or agencies and want to understand the terms that come up in proposals, meetings and reports, with no technical background needed.

What is the difference between a logotype, a symbol, a combination mark and an emblem?

A logotype is text only; a symbol is an image only; a combination mark pairs a symbol and text that can be separated; and an emblem fuses them into one piece that cannot be split. In everyday use, they are all called “logos.”

What is the difference between a domain and hosting?

The domain is your website’s name, such as yourbrand.com; hosting is the service that stores its files and keeps it online. They are separate things, can be with different providers, and both must be renewed for the site to keep working.

What files will the print shop ask for?

Usually a CMYK PDF with bleed, crop marks, images at adequate resolution and fonts embedded or converted to outlines. Each print shop has its own specifications, so it is worth asking for them before preparing the final artwork.

What's the difference between a CRM and an ERP?

A CRM organizes the relationship with contacts and customers: inquiries, follow-ups and sales opportunities. An ERP manages internal operations such as inventory, purchasing, invoicing and accounting. Many companies use both, connected to each other.

Answers from the AiDo Creative team

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